BHOPAL
: A team of scientists from WII-Dehradun will visit
Madhya Pradesh
to inspect possible locations for the ambitious project of reintroduction of
Cheetahs
in India.
“We are ready with five sites. It would on the experts to finalize the location. The schedule of their visit has not been cleared yet,” said Alok Kumar,
chief wildlife warden
of MP.
The shortlisted locations include Kuno National Park in Sheopur, Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Damoh,
Madhav National Park
in Shivpuri and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Mandsaur. Kuno was, in fact, chosen for translocation of Gir lions.
In 2019,
Supreme Court had given its nod to
National Tiger Conservation Authority
’s proposal to experimentally introduce African cheetahs in Indian jungles. The last of the cheetahs in the country was hunted down in the 1950s.
Pressing for SC’s nod for the two-year-old proposal from NTCA, senior advocate S Wasim Ahmed Qadri had told a bench of Justices S A Bobde and B R Gavai that 19 cheetahs were proposed to be brought from Namibia and introduced in sanctuaries carefully selected by experts.
‘Habitat, prey base of Kuno being monitored’In its plea-cum-roadmap, NTCA had said it had carried out extensive survey and research to locate ideal habitats for cheetah in India and zeroed in on three — Kuno and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries in MP and Shahgarh in Rajasthan.
NTCA said, “The habitat and the prey base of Kuno, Nauradehi and Shahgarh are still being monitored by
Wildlife Institute of India
.
The Cheetah Conservation Fund
, Namibia, has expressed its willingness to donate cheetahs and only cost towards transportation of these animals to India is needed to be funded.”
“Reintroduction of cheetah in India would be a matter of great conservation significance and pride for the country, as it would be the only large animal that peninsular India has lost in its historical times and bringing focus on country’s most productive yet neglected grassland ecosystem and upon the endangered species dependent upon them,” it said.